The New Zealand government announced changes to the allocation process for international student visa applications and the Active Investor Plus Visa.

Key Points:

  • Officials stated that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) will now prioritize visa applications from students who are in New Zealand and applying for a second or subsequent international student visa with a new provider or for a different course.
    • INZ will continue to process other international student visa applications in date order.
  • Additionally, beginning April 1, the government will implement changes to the Active Investor Plus Visa.
    • The changes will introduce two simplified investment categories, Growth and Balanced, and create a minimum investment amount for those categories of NZ$5 million (about US$2.8 million) for Growth and NZ$10 million (about US$5.6 million) for Balanced.
    • The changes also include broadening the scope of acceptable investments, fewer immigration requirements for migrants who choose more active investments and removing English language requirements.

Additional Information: While the government is reducing the time Growth and Balanced category visa holders must make their investments (within six months of their approval), they are offering the option to apply for a six-month extension. Overall, the government believes the changes will help attract high value investment and incentivize people to invest in New Zealand.

For the change in allocation process for international student visa applications, the government intends to improve visa processing times for international students and provide more flexibility and efficiency before the peak summer period.

This alert has been provided by the BAL Global Practice Group.

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